Construction projects are continuing to be under development in the Rural Municipality of Weyburn, and inquiries of interest are still being fielded by the RM office, the RM council heard at their monthly council meeting on Dec. 11.
Construction projects are continuing to be under development in the Rural Municipality of Weyburn, and inquiries of interest are still being fielded by the RM office, the RM council heard at their monthly council meeting on Dec. 11.
Reeve Carmen Sterling noted the council approved several development permits at the meeting, including nine permits for new homes, two for residential garages, and six commercial permits. Some of the residential permits were for mobile homes.
"They're quite spread out. Two are at Ralph, and the rest are spread throughout the RM on acreages or quarter-sections, and are in various stages of construction," said Reeve Sterling, adding some have been in the system from previous months and are just now being approved.
"We're still getting inquiries at the office about building in the RM," she noted, admitting that they are not issuing as many permits as they had been. In some instances, there are developments from developers who have vacant lots in subdivisions where there is already investment in roads and streetlights.
"We want to work with them so we're not flooding the market with lots; some of these are on lots already subdivided," said the reeve.
The RM council also set the schedule for deputy reeves and the rates of remuneration for the coming year; the schedule for deputy reeves are set to rotate every second month so every councillor has an opportunity to serve as deputy reeve through the year.
There was no change in the remuneration for council, and the only change was to the rates charged trucking companies for road maintenance.
Under this system, truckers are charged a certain amount, which goes into the RM's road maintenance fund, explained the reeve.
"These rates haven't changed in a very long time," said Reeve Sterling, noting the government is doing a review of the system, and the government has also imposed a cap for how much RMs can charge for road maintenance.
"It's on the honour system; trucking companies are supposed to contact the RM when they're going to haul in the RM, and they remit based on the numbers they're hauling. New haulers are asked to get in touch with us, and councillors also keep an eye out for any haulers we don't have road maintenance agreements with," said the reeve.
Council authorized members to attend the upcoming winter meeting for the Regina Area Rural Municipalities Association, of which Reeve Sterling is the vice-president.
The meeting is set for Jan. 9-10, and as she is already attending as vice-president, two other members of council will be able to attend.
"It's a smaller group of RMs in the Regina area; in a smaller group, there's a better opportunity to talk about local issues. We have a smaller bearpit session (than at SARM), and we do up a questionnaire about things that RMs have for services, such as dust control or sharing services with other RMs. It's a way to compare whether you're within the average or below it for services," said the reeve.
On of the issues they will also be bringing up are recycling of grain bags, which has seen increased usage in the RM, particularly a year with record production as was seen in 2013.
As Sterling is also president of SARM's rat eradication board, she noted they also don't want to see these bags become a refuge for the rodents.
